Chronological History. 35 



Texas, and in certain valleys of Central America, that 

 they filled the air like flakes of snow on a winter's day, 

 and attacked everything green or succulent with a 

 voracity and despatch destructive to the hopes of the 

 agriculturalists. " 



They are described as reducing the Mormons of Salt 

 Lake, during that year, to a simpler diet than that of John 

 the Baptist, for the people had to fall back on the locusts 

 without the honey ; and they caused a good deal of suffer- 

 ing in the then Territories of Kansas, Nebraska and 

 Minnesota. The summer of 1855, like that of 1874, was 

 exceedingly dry — the driest, in fact, that had been known 

 for ten years. 



In 1856 they again made their appearance m parts of 

 Utah, California and Texas, but in diminished numbers. 

 In Minnesota, however,* and in Western and North- 

 western Iowa their ravages during this year seem to have 

 been greater. 



In 1857 we hear of them again in various parts of the 

 Northwestf and around the Assiniboine settlement in 

 Manitoba,]; and they destroyed the entire crop of a region 

 of country extending from the base of the third plateau 

 to the Gulf of Mexico, 150 miles in length, and about 80 

 miles in breadth, including the entire valley of the Gauda- 

 loupe, and much of the territory watered by the Colorado 

 and San Antonio rivers. Throughout this whole area of 

 12,000 square miles every green thing cultivated by man 

 was consumed, and how much further northwest the 

 ravages extended is not known. § They reached as far 

 east as Central Iowa.|| 



* Rep. of Dept. of Agr., 1863, p. 36. 



t Walsh's 111. Ent. Rep , pp. 92-3; Prairie Farmer, April 25, 1868. 

 % Canada Farmer^ Aug. 15, 1874. 

 § Rev. E. Fontaine, loc. cit. 



